Soviet symbols removed from Kyiv Hero City monument

The removal of Soviet symbols from Kyiv's Hero City monument in Halytska Square is nearly completed, the Kyiv City Administration reported on Sept. 15.

Deputy Administration Head Hanna Starostenko said that employees were finishing work on the monument, an undertaking she described as "decommunization in action."

The monument in Halytska Square (formerly Victory Square) is a 30-meter-tall obelisk celebrating Kyiv's status as a Soviet Hero City in World War II.

Kyiv, Moscow’s opposing attitudes toward Soviet past shape two different futures

For Kyiv’s Motherland monument, 2023 marks an era of rebirth. In late July, the national landmark saw the Soviet hammer and sickle that once adorned its shield replaced with the tryzub, the Ukrainian trident. The rejuvenated monument was officially unveiled on Aug. 24, Ukrainian Independence Day.…

The Kyiv IndependentKatie Marie Davies

The city administration said they removed explicitly Soviet elements from the obelisk.

Workers removed stars from the side of the monument and Russian-language annotation. They also altered the date on the monument from "1941" to "1939," the year Ukrainian historians consider the official start of World War II.  

In August, the Soviet coat of arms was removed from Kyiv's Motherland Monument and replaced with the Ukrainian Tryzub, or trident.

The administration has approved a list of 69 Soviet memorials, monuments, and decorative objects in the city to be dismantled or replaced.